Inside the Creepiest Bar in the USA and Its Serial Killer Legend

There is a handwritten sign in the window of L&L Tavern in Chicago that makes a bold claim: “Creepiest Bar in the USA.” Step inside the weathered Clark Street storefront and the sign starts to make a lot of sense. Neon lights a dark room where the bar, stools, walls, and fixtures show decades of use. Nothing has been staged to look old or eerie. L&L is a genuine surviver dive bar.

Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy were American serial killers who preyed on young men and boys. Dahmer murdered 17 between 1978 and 1991, mostly in Milwaukee, and met some of his victims in gay bars, exploiting the possibility of a hookup to lure them away. Gacy murdered at least 33 young men and boys in the Chicago area between 1972 and 1978, often using offers of work to gain their trust. Their victims were not all gay, but their crimes bring a chilling context to stories about Chicago nightlife: behind the familiar setting of a neighborhood bar was the very real fear that a seemingly ordinary stranger could be a predator.

Longstanding accounts from former owners, employees, and customers place Jeffrey Dahmer inside the bar and John Wayne Gacy inside the tavern that occupied the space before the L&L name appeared on the awning. Customers reportedly recognized Dahmer after his 1991 arrest. Gacy’s reported visit has been handed down through the past ownership. Neither man is known to have committed a crime there, yet knowing they may have once walked through the same door gives an ordinary neighborhood dive bar a very different feeling.

To understand what gay nightlife in Chicago felt like around those years, HomoCulture sat down with Sam Loveless. Sam is a familiar face in Chicago’s gay scene. He’s been for decades. You can still find him dancing in the street during Northalsted Market Days, out at bars and clubs on weekends, or sitting at the Horseshoe watching the male dancers. He also spent years working in Chicago’s financial markets, including the Chicago Board of Trade. “I stayed openly gay through my business life at the Board of Trade and out on the streets,” he told HomoCulture. Sam has watched Chicago gay nightlife change for more than four decades, and one of his earliest memories leads directly back to L&L.

Why the Creepiest Bar in the USA Has Such a Dark Reputation

L&L Tavern sits at 3207 N. Clark Street near Belmont Avenue in Lakeview, within walking distance of Northalsted and some of Chicago’s best-known gay nightlife. The surrounding blocks once had a much rougher counterculture reputation. Across the street, young punks gathered in a Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot that became known locally as Punkin’ Donuts. Much of that version of Clark and Belmont disappeared as the neighborhood changed. L&L stayed put.

The tavern is older than its current name. It was previously Columbia Tavern & Liquors, which moved to the Clark Street location in the early 1960s. It would eventually be sold and renamed L&L. It was never a gay bar, but gay men were known to stop by. Its place in this story comes from its location, its longevity, the people who drank there, and the stories that never left the room. Sam is part of that history.

Sam Loveless Got His First Kiss at L&L

“A guy I knew from high school was gay,” Sam recalled. “He was interested in me, but I didn’t know I was gay yet. He told me, ‘I want to take you to a bar.’ So he took me there.”

Sam still remembers the bartender. “There was a bartender named Feathers. I remember him because he used to lick money and stick it to his forehead. That was his thing.”

When Feathers asked what he wanted to drink, Sam had no idea. “The guy I was with said, ‘I got you,’ and they made me a Long Island iced tea.”

Then Sam began looking around.

“I started noticing there were only men in there,” he said. “I told the guy I came with, ‘There are men in here.’”

His friend grabbed him and kissed him.

“That was my first kiss.”

The memory puts Sam directly inside a room now better known for its serial killer lore. In the early 1980s, gay bars were critical meeting grounds for the social lives of men who could not open an app or easily find one another in public. They were places to meet friends, cruise, date, find sex, build community, and sometimes understand something new about yourself. For Sam, L&L became part of that history years before Dahmer’s name became attached to it.

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Was Jeffrey Dahmer Really Drinking at L&L Tavern?

When Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested in Milwaukee in 1991, patrons of L&L reportedly recognized the man appearing on television. Former owner Kenn Frandsen recalled customers identifying Dahmer as somebody they had seen at the bar. Another account attributed to an L&L employee named Frankie said Dahmer liked sitting near the window and looking toward young men gathered across Clark Street.

Those recollections became the foundation of the L&L Dahmer legend. They do not establish in any way that Dahmer used the bar to search for or find victims.

The two known victims Dahmer encountered in Chicago met him elsewhere. Matt Turner met Dahmer at Chicago’s Greyhound Bus Station. Jeremiah Weinberger met him at Carol’s Speakeasy in Old Town.

That leaves L&L with one of the strangest distinctions in Chicago nightlife history. People associated with the bar remembered Dahmer being there, while the documented Chicago victim encounters lead to other addresses.

You can still walk into L&L today, pull up a stool, have a drink, chat with the locals, and imagine what it would have been like all those years ago.

The Chicago Bar Where Dahmer Met Jeremiah Weinberger Is Gone

Carol’s Speakeasy operated at 1355 N. Wells Street in Old Town from 1978 to 1992. The gay history archive Wearing Gay History documents Carol’s as a gay bar and documents its connection to 23-year-old Jeremiah Weinberger.

Weinberger met Dahmer there in July 1991 and left Chicago with him for Milwaukee, where Dahmer murdered him. His name is an important part of this history because fascination with serial killers can easily push the victims they murdered into the background.

The physical history left behind is unsettling in its own way. Carol’s, where Dahmer is documented as meeting Weinberger, closed decades ago. You can still walk Wells Street and visit the former address, but the bar hasn’t been around for a long time.

L&L survived. That’s what makes it unique.

You can still sit down and order a drink there.

John Wayne Gacy Is Part of the L&L Legend Too

Another story passed through former ownership places John Wayne Gacy inside the tavern during the 1970s. One detail has kept the account alive for decades: Gacy reportedly came in dressed as a clown.

There is no evidence that Gacy abducted or murdered anyone directly associated with being at the tavern, and no documented criminal incident connects him to the location. His reported appearance remains part of the bar’s oral history.

The crimes behind the story were very real. Gacy murdered 33 teenage boys and young men before his arrest in December 1978. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office continues trying to identify five victims through DNA.

Sam first remembers going to L&L around 1981 or 1982, only a few years after Gacy’s arrest and almost a decade before Dahmer’s known Chicago victim encounters. His young adulthood sits between two cases that would became closely tied to the communities concrerns and worries about danger, cruising, gay nightlife, and the vulnerability of young men.

Sam Remembers the Fear and the Nights That Kept Going

“Everybody was on guard after that, especially minority people,” Sam said when asked what it felt like living through the period. “But it was scary.”

Gacy felt like the greater personal threat to him. “With John Wayne Gacy, he could have just picked me up,” Sam said. At the time, Sam was a young man, and fit the stereotype of the kinds of guys Gacy has been after. It was a real fear.

At the same time, the gay community itself gave him a sense of safety. “ I felt protected by the community and by my relationships.”

Sam recalled the deep distrust surrounding how gay people were treated by police, and rumors that circulated about bar owners paying for security or protection. Sam is clear that he did not know the details himself. But what he remembers is how little faith some people had that authorities would respond when gay men needed help.

“Call the cops? They might not show up,” he said. “It was bad back then.”

Fear never became the entire story. Sam still went out to the bars to drink, dance, and meet new people.

“I was mostly just having fun and living my life,” Sam said. “I wasn’t thinking too much about it.”

That may be the best way to understand that period in time. Gay men knew there were risks. Not just with the fears of serial killers, but it was also the beginning of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Gay men still went drinking, met friends, cruised, hooked up, dated, fell in love, and went to work the next morning. Sam remained openly gay in a professional world where many men felt they could not do the same.

“I was somebody who was relentless about it,” he said.

More than 40 years later, he is still proudly part of the Chicago gay scene.

You Can Still Walk Into This Chicago History

L&L offers the deepest creep factor. Today, you can walk through the same door Sam entered in the early 1980s and sit in the room where customers later remembered seeing Dahmer and where bar lore places Gacy years earlier. Nobody can specifically say which stool either man may have occupied, where either one stood, or what happened during a particular visit. But as you look around, it is easy to understand why the stories have lasted. This is still the same room that has gone unchanged, serving drinks instead of displaying artifacts behind glass.

Downtown, Second Story Bar offers another surviving piece of gay Chicago. Hidden upstairs at 157 E. Ohio Street near the Magnificent Mile, Second Story is described as one of the last remnants of Tower Town, the former Near North Side bohemian and gay enclave. Walk upstairs from one of Chicago’s busiest tourist districts and you enter a small, old-school gay bar that feels far removed from the polished city outside. There is no credible Dahmer or Gacy connection here. Its place in history is important because the bar was also around at the same time, and has survived. You can go there today, sit at the bar, where dim counter-mounted bar lights and neon signs add mystery to the experience.

Lucky Horseshoe Lounge at Belmont and Halsted completes the trio. The bar dates back to 1989, placing its beginnings just two years before Dahlmer was arrested, and within the later AIDS crisis and the Chicago gay nightlife era Sam remembers. Therea are no known accounts of Dahlmer being at the Lucky Horseshoe Lounge. Its male dancers remain part of the reason its still a popular destination for gay men, and Sam remains one of the familiar faces who can still be found at the bar.

More than four decades after his first kiss at L&L, Sam still sits inside a Chicago gay bar that survived, talking about the places, men, fears, rumors, parties, events, people, and nights that shaped his life in the city.

The next time you’re in Chicago, you can stop by and visit these surviving bars with the addresses that disappeared. Walk Wells Street in Old Town and pass the former Carol’s Speakeasy location. Head north to L&L. Continue into Northalsted for Lucky Horseshoe and the rest of the neighborhood. Check out our guide to gay bars in Chicago to find current gay nightlife, and use our gay travel guide to Chicago to help turn your plans into a full weekend.

Come for Chicago and Turn Up the Creepy Factor at Halloween

You can visit these iconic and storied gay bars any time of the year, but if you want the extra thrill and chill, Halloween is the time to go. Start downtown with a drink upstairs at Second Story, pass through Old Town and the former Carol’s Speakeasy address, then head to L&L and sit inside the room that carries decades of Dahmer and Gacy lore. From there, walk into Northalsted and finish at Lucky Horseshoe. On Saturday, October 31, 2026, the neighborhood also hosts the 30th anniversary of Haunted Halsted Halloween, with a daytime block party, 7 p.m. parade, costume contest, and post-parade celebration. Come to Chicago for the city, its gay nightlife, and its history, then spend Halloween weekend seeing just how much of its strange past is still standing.

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Frequently Asked Questions About the Creepiest Bar in the USA

What Is the Creepiest Bar in the USA?

L&L Tavern in Chicago calls itself the “Creepiest Bar in the USA.” The Lakeview dive bar has developed a reputation through longstanding stories connecting it to Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy, although no known murder or abduction involving either man occurred there.

Did Jeffrey Dahmer Drink at L&L Tavern in Chicago?

Published accounts say former owners, employees, and customers remembered Jeffrey Dahmer drinking at L&L before his 1991 arrest. These remain personal recollections rather than police-confirmed evidence that he used the bar to find victims.

Did Jeffrey Dahmer Meet Victims at L&L Tavern?

There is no evidence that either of Dahmer’s two known Chicago victim encounters happened at L&L. Matt Turner met him at Chicago’s Greyhound Bus Station, while Jeremiah Weinberger met him at Carol’s Speakeasy in Old Town.

Did John Wayne Gacy Visit L&L Tavern?

A story passed down through former ownership says Gacy visited the tavern that later became L&L during the 1970s and reportedly appeared there dressed as a clown. The account remains part of the bar’s oral history rather than a documented criminal incident.

Is L&L Tavern Still Open?

Yes. L&L Tavern remains open at 3207 N. Clark Street in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood.

Where Did Jeffrey Dahmer Meet Jeremiah Weinberger?

Dahmer met 23-year-old Jeremiah Weinberger at Carol’s Speakeasy on Wells Street in Chicago’s Old Town in July 1991. Carol’s has since closed, although travelers can still visit the former Wells Street location.

What Historic Gay Bars Can You Still Visit in Chicago?

Second Story remains open near the Magnificent Mile, while Lucky Horseshoe Lounge continues operating at Belmont and Halsted in Northalsted. L&L remains open nearby in Lakeview. Second Story and Lucky Horseshoe have no credible connection to Dahmer or Gacy, but all three let people today enter surviving pieces of Chicago nightlife history.

Chicago Kept the Doors Open

Sam Loveless can still walk into the same Chicago gay scene that has been part of his life for decades, even though many of the places and people he once knew are gone. You can do something unusual here too: open the door at L&L, climb the stairs at Second Story, sit down at Lucky Horseshoe, and occupy rooms tied to generations of nightlife history. The serial killer lore gives the Creepiest Bar in the USA its chill, while the lasting thrill comes from realizing these places never became museum exhibits. They stayed bars.

Have you been inside L&L, Second Story, or Lucky Horseshoe, or do you know another old gay nightlife spot with a story worth preserving? Leave a comment and share your experience.